Whale book? More like Fail book.

So,  I was just about to write a scathing review of the book, "Billy Twitters and the Blue Whale Problem," when I read that the author, Mac Barnett, opened a time travel store in L.A. http://www.826la.org/store/

Anyone with the good sense to open a time travel store can't be that bad. But still, why couldn't he have written a kids' book about time travel?

The reason I hated this book is because I have too much respect for whales to let them be problematic masses of blubber in some dumb book. I am an ultra sensitive person and I love whales. They are peaceful and they make beautiful music, which is lovely to listen to when getting a massage.


Billy Twitters is punished for not cleaning his room with the responsibility of caring for a blue whale. This book is not even logical, because wouldn't a whale just make everything messier? Billy does not make friends with the whale. The whale doesn't even have a personality. Then instead of returning the whale to the ocean, Billy moves his bedroom into the whale's stomach. Lame.

The parents' faces were obscured by voice bubbles and I thought that was the only interesting feature of this book.  I know I don't want to see the faces of strict parents. But then again, I don't want to see bratty kids who mistreat whales either. I am sorry the whale didn't roll over and flatten him.

Here Comes the Garbage Barge=Awesome

Okay, so it's been a few months since I updated my blog. I have been busy with school. My greatest achievement recently is that I finished my English degree. The feeling is equivalent to finishing a half marathon. I still have grad school to look forward to, and if you consider how much time I spent in school and how many languages I studied, toward the end I felt like I was being dragged across the finish line.

But now I'm done, and I can fulfill my lifelong dream of driving a garbage barge, like my hero, Captain Duffy. Actually, I just found out about Captain Duffy last night . . . . . and I don't really want to drive a garbage barge. Also, Captain Duffy isn't my hero. But he is an excellent kids' book character!

This hilarious book tells the true story of Long Island's garbage problem in the 1980's. It teaches readers not to dump their trash on other people, both literally and figuratively. The artwork was appropriately made using recycled materials. I think kids and adults will love this book and want to read it again and again and again and again.

When you go look for this book, you should also check out Jonah Winter's book, Dizzy. I've only read two books by this guy and I'm about to crown him the king of kids' books.